Stephen Norrington to Reinvent The Crow

Stephen Norrington has signed on to write and direct a reinvention of The Crow, based on the comic created by James O’Barr, says Variety.

Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media is negotiating with producer Ed Pressman to acquire the film franchise and finance the film.

Pressman produced the 1994 Alex Proyas-directed adaptation, in which rock musician Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) is murdered trying to rescue his girlfriend from thugs, and returns from the dead one year later to exact vengeance.

For Norrington, The Crow deal marks the end of a long screen sabbatical. After making his breakthrough with Blade, Norrington took on a big-budget comic transfer with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Neither the director nor his star, Sean Connery, has made a feature film since.

“Whereas Proyas’ original was gloriously gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style,” Norrington said.